Recommendations for Pastors
SERMONS
CHURCH DIRECTION AND ORGANIZATION
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
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SERMONS
Sermons can be very powerful in helping Christians live the way they should. But, if they rarely emphasize Christian relationships, they will fail to give the Lord what he wants from his people. Individualized Christianity is crippling local churches and must be challenged by sermons.
Biblical relationships count more than individual Bible knowledge and individual obedience. In fact, both individualized Christianity and individual obedience are self-contradictory. You cannot have Christianity or obedience without godly Christian relationships. There are just too many of God’s expectations listed in Scripture that deal with how we interact with one another. What is to define the church is the supernaturally-powered love that cannot be duplicated by those outside of the faith. (See John 13:34-45.)
Our list of the Togethers of Scripture pulls together hundreds of Bible verses and passages into 65 things God tells Christians to do when they are together. And, it is in this kingdom lifestyle together that the individual finds deeper spiritual growth and closer relationship with God. (See John 14:21.)
Pastors are usually the main influencers of the church, especially because of sermons. Pastors are key to helping Christians understand that their individual walk with Christ is to be obediently incorporated into the mutually dependent forms of the church. Most powerful because of the frequency of contact are Christian friendships, Christian families and Christian marriages. These powerful forms of the church should be the most prominent in sermons where application of truth is concerned.
Understanding that you, as a pastor, hold the position to motivate Christians to biblical obedience in relationships, we make these very important recommendations.
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1. Change your perspective to prioritize corporate Christianity, with individual faith as most important when applied to life together with other believers. (More explanation below.)
2. Preach about the church in its “boots on the ground” forms of Christian friendships, families, and marriages. (More explanation below.) 3. Preach to your church, not to individuals. This means to talk most to the “2 or 3 with Jesus” groups of friendships, marriages, and families. These are the groups that will carry Christianity throughout the community all week long and be the strength of your church. (More explanation below.) 4. Expect corporate Christianity. Expect individual faith to be applied to mutually dependent and collaborative faith. (More explanation below.) |
Explanations Regarding Sermons
1. Change your perspective to prioritize corporate Christianity, with individual faith as most important when applied to life together with other believers.
Recognize that individualized Christianity is crippling all forms of the church, including the critical social atmosphere of your own local church. Understand that the strength of your church lies less in autonomous individuals than in the friendships, the marriages, and the families of your church living true to the Scriptures you preach.
It is critical that you remember that no one will be able to understand, internalize and implement what you will teach without the thoughtful help of his or her Christian friends, spouse, and family. This is God’s design ‒ that people need help from others, not autonomously from God. Genesis 2:18 makes that very clear. The biggest tragedies in the Bible (King David’s commission of adultery and murder, for one example) and in the contemporary church all testify that purity and obedience is a group effort. God often helps us through his people.
Become well aware of the overwhelming plurality in Scripture and its importance for seeking the kingdom and its righteousness. (This is more fully explained in our article titled Extensive Biblical Basis for Corporate Faith. It is a long read. Click here to go there.)
The articles on this website will help you expand your “church mindset”. You will be alarmed, as we were, at how natural it is to think only of individual faith. You know the Scriptures, but you will be surprised when you see the plural meaning. A great example of this is Philippians 1:6, the third sentence in a letter to a church. There is only one singular pronoun in the whole book of Philippians, when an individual’s name is mentioned. And yet, in this verse, we think of the individual Christian being completed, which is not at all accurate. In fact, it is quite dangerous because it is abundantly clear in the Bible that the individual is perfected within Christian interaction. How does one, for example, become forgiving and reflect God’s forgiving nature apart from close, personal and occasionally difficult relationships?
So, beware of the cultural bias of “individualistic Christianity” (an oxymoron) which causes us to read our Bibles incorrectly. Pastors need to depend more on their Greek translations to identify the overwhelming plurality in Scripture. The English language does not distinguish well between singular and plural pronouns as well as singular and plural verbs.
A critical example of this problem is 1 Corinthians 10:12,13. Verse twelve is in the Greek singular. Verse thirteen switches to the Greek plural. Grasp the critical significance with the help of my clarifications in brackets: “So, if you [individual Christian] think you [individual Christian] are standing firm [alone], be careful that you [individual Christian] don’t fall! No temptation has seized [all of] you [together] except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you [the Corinthian church acting together] be tempted beyond what you [together] can bear. But when you [collectively or the individual in community] are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you [together] can stand up under it.” (NIV)
It makes all the difference in the world to see the switch from the singular in verse twelve to the plural in verse thirteen.
Even when plurality is absolutely clear in English translations, westerners distort the meaning because of the culture’s blindness. For example, the plurality in Isaiah 40:31 should be obvious. It talks of “eagles” (plural), but so many of pictures accompanying this verse show only one eagle. If the Bible is telling us to wait on the Lord or hope on the Lord (whichever translation you prefer) together, waiting alone or autonomously is certainly not the model God wanted us to see and follow.
Therefore, do not give singular meaning to plural passages in Scripture. Check with your Greek translation or be very mindful of the context. You can also check the old King James Bible which always uses “thee” and “thou” for singular and “ye” and “you” for plural. But be careful to resist interpreting the plural to mean each of you individually within the larger whole. That may be a secondary meaning, but it does not mesh with the culture of the Bible or the context of the whole of Scripture.
2. Preach about the church in its “boots on the ground” forms of Christian friendships, families, and marriages.
Teach your congregation that the church is Christians in relationship with one another and together in relationship with God. The church is not to be superficial, for God deserves more than that and has commanded more than that. Christians are to be interested and participatory in one another’s life out of sincere in love. This produces a profound relationship with God.
Therefore, preach more about the whole puzzle and less about the individual pieces. While it is true that an individual jigsaw puzzle piece is functional, it does not accomplish much compared to the beauty of the finished puzzle. That puzzle usually comes together by assembling sections depicting separate pictures within the whole puzzle. It is like that with the church (the whole puzzle). Put the sections of Christian friendships, families and marriages together first to build a strong church.
Teach “church Christianity” so it is clear to your listeners that God is more interested in Christians together than Christians isolated. In your mind, do not limit the church to the status of organization, building, or time on Sunday.
Make sure through your sermons that your people know and accept that the more they live an individual, autonomous, and private lifestyle the less successful they will be, especially in pleasing God. Repeat often that Adam was created to need a helper and be a helper. Show in sermons how the whole Bible shows that God wants it that way and that disaster follows when this truth is ignored.
Even when preaching about what seems to be “only about God”, you still need to bring in Christian relationships. If you teach about God’s sovereignty, for example, you must tell your listeners to commission their friends and family to help them remember that the Lord is in control, especially during planning times (James 4:15) and difficult times. And, tell your listeners to help their inner Christian circle to trust God’s sovereign control of circumstances, invited to help or not.
To encourage interdependent, loving community throughout the week in church relationships (friendships, families, marriages), define the church as active whenever two or more Christians are together and Christ is with them. Lend a vision of what the church can be like when they think of one another or are physically in the same place or are working together on some good work. Instead of thinking so much about individuals, think of marriages, families, friendships (even children’s friendships), small groups, ministry teams, church staff, and when two or more Christians work at the same employment location. Give Scriptural applications to community in all of these relationships and only occasionally to the autonomous individual.
Read through our other website that is not oriented to church leadership (ChristiansTogether.org) and digest all of the practical applications of the Togethers to life’s challenges. There is ample sermon material there.
You must teach the Togethers of Scripture well if you want a strong, capable church.
Teach that Christian friends, Christian families, and Christian spouses MUST work together to help one another become all that God wants them to be and to help them do whatever God assigns them to do individually and as a group. Stop hoping that if an individual father in the pew learns the truth from your sermon that he will go home and apply it or apply it on a fishing trip. You know that only a few of them will. The more radical the change will be for that father, the more help he will need from his wife and his friends. And, in single parent families, friends are doubly important.
Teach that individual spiritual growth is dependent upon the spiritual growth of your church. Philippians 1:6 clearly teaches that God completes churches. Individuals are completed within this process of church completion. If your church is not being completed, your individual members are not either (unless they are members of some other regular gathering of Christians that is being completed more rapidly).
Explain from the pulpit that the kingdom of God is made up largely of relationships. (Jesus said that the kingdom was not so easily seen because it was among them. Luke 17:21) Teach that seeking the kingdom is more important than even earning a living (Mt 6:33). Explain that seeking the kingdom is learning to behave like citizens of heaven. Implementing the relationships of the kingdom reveals the kingdom.
So, give life applications of seeking together his kingdom and righteousness. Continually give examples of the marriage seeking the kingdom. Continually give examples of the family seeking the kingdom together. Continually give examples of friends seeking the kingdom together.
If every Sunday you give examples and illustrations that show the benefits of loving one another in community, you will be encouraging vital Christian friendships, families and marriages. You will also be giving more and more reasons for people to find community in a small group.
Teach intensely about Christian relationships. Tell how they are different than secular relationships, how they are worshipful acts in everyday life, and how they are God’s way of living in his kingdom, thus the best way to live. Our Togethers of Scripture list biblical commands and admonishments to help you in this task.
You must teach the Togethers of Scripture well if you want a strong, capable church.
3. Preach to your church, not to individuals. This means to talk most to the “2 or 3 with Jesus” groups of friendships, marriages, and families. These are the groups that will carry Christianity throughout the community all week long and be the strength of your church.
Almost all preaching is talking to individual Christians. Pastors see themselves preaching to their church, but in reality they are talking to individuals who just happen to be in a collection of people. Of course, this is not wrong. But it should be just the start of a process that addresses the critical groups to which Christians belong.
For example, consider a Bible study group where the focus is growing in forgiveness. All too often the leader only teaches individuals about forgiveness. Almost never does he or she talk to the Bible study group as a group and teach them how together they can help each other forgive anyone each of them has not. They are seldom shown how they can go with one of the group’s members to seek forgiveness from someone with whom that member has been alienated for a long time. The leader probably thinks that forgiving is an individual thing. But, Scripture shows that we need help from one another to do what God asks of us. (See our article on helping someone find a job after a long time of unemployment for an example of this. Click here to go there.)
When teaching something from Scripture, start by helping the individual Christian see how knowing that truth is important to his or her life as an individual. But, don’t stop there. Putting that biblical truth into practice (obedience) requires the help of that person’s most trusted Christian friends and relatives. Be sure to mention this and exhort individuals to bring others into their sanctification. Make sure Christians know that the privilege of asking for help is acceptable and expected. Applying the truth your sermon highlighted is very important and help is required.
After talking to the individual in the pew, change your focus to Christian friendships. Christian friendships are the primary defense against divorce and family breakdown and other quite harmful sins. Lead off by saying something like, “Now I want to talk to you about how your friendships should apply this Scriptural teaching.” And, don’t pass up the time to talk to children and teens (2 separate groups) about how they, too, can implement the Scriptural teaching in their friendships.
Follow that by similarly instructing families how they can work together to understand and apply the Bible passages you have been preaching. Be sure to help kids know how they can help their parents. Talking to the kids like this will empower them and give them permission to try to help everyone in their family, even Mom and Dad. Tell parents that if they are not yet willing to let the Holy Spirit work through their kids for their own sanctification to get help from their spouse and friends.
Third, talk to marriages in the pews. Say something like, “Marriage was created in the Garden of Eden as a relationship of helping one another do whatever God asked of them. Adam and Eve forgot about that, and look at the trouble we are in as a result. You don’t want to forget that your strength as a Christian husband or wife is dependent upon getting help from you spouse. Let me point out some things you can do with each other to assimilate the content of today’s sermon. And, let me suggest that this all be done gently and with humility.”
Some of your suggestions to friendship groups, families and marriages may be redundant. But the repetition is probably good, not bad.
Last, explain how the sermon topic can be applied to your church, both in its small group communities and the larger fellowship on Sundays. Preach to your church as a living organism. Say things like, “This passage of Scripture means that all of you need to ....” Or, “God seems to be saying to our church, ‘Do this’ or ‘Think this’ or ‘Have this attitude....’”
Suppose you are teaching that life in Christ is one of hope. You will teach that every individual Christian should have hope. But, to be true to the Scriptures, you also need to say something like, “We are to have hope together. The bride has hope that the Bridegroom cares for her and will come to her aid as well as show up for the wedding. The difficulties of life will deplete some of us of hope, and it is up to us all, especially in our closest relationships as friends, spouses and families, to carry those temporarily without hope in the strength of our collective hope.”
Remember in teaching husbands how to love their wives biblically, that you have to teach the wives how to help their husbands do it. And don’t forget to tell how a Christian man learning to love his wife more and more, as Jesus would want, needs help from other Christian friends. Also tell the women in the church how they are to help Christian men who are not their husband to love their wives more and more. Of course, the same holds true of teaching wives to do their best.
4. Expect corporate Christianity. Expect individual faith to be applied to mutually dependent and collaborative faith.
Too often pastors preach as though it is optional to do more than just learning truth. Pastors must preach like they expect people in their churches to live out what they have learned through the sermon. So, at the end of your sermon, put the friendships, marriages and families to work. That is how God expects spiritual growth and obedience to occur.
Growing faith requires Christian interaction and love as described by our 65 Togethers of Scripture. It doesn’t take faith to learn the Bible. It takes faith to believe the Bible. Then, in obedience to the Scripture’s continual expectation for biblical relationships among believers, it takes faith to live and love deeply within the society of saved sinners. Living like we are already in the kingdom of God requires faith. Build faith in your listeners by expecting kingdom living.
Practice interdependent living and use such illustrations from your own life in your sermons. Put the Togethers of Scripture into practice in your life and in the life of your own friendships, family and marriage. Since we have all but forgotten that Adam and the human race was designed by God to need help, ask others for help and do not feel hesitant to inconvenience others. Modeling the Togethers of Scripture in your own life is very powerful in changing the behavior of your listeners. Discipling is more showing than just telling.
Do all you can to set up some way for everyone in your church to have at least 3 close friends. Know who does not and see if they can be paired up with someone or brought into an existing smaller circle of friends. If you preach the absolute necessity of Christian friendships fleshing out the Togethers of Scripture, people may take the risks to make friendships. It is very important to preach that everyone have a few close Christian friends inside or outside of your church.
Teach the families of your congregation that each family is a vital building block of the church. Do all you can to help every family see how important they are. Suggest things week after week that their family can do to walk the city in Jesus’ steps. Publically rejoice when a family helped out a handicapped person with yard work, took a lonely older person for a drive and picnic, or any of the thousands of things that can best be done by a family.
Show that the marriages in your congregation can become three times as meaningful when a husband and wife see themselves as a team with a mission from God. Cherish the chance to lend these marriages a vision of how they, together as a team, can be the light of the world to other marriages, to homeless people, to neighborhood children of harsh parents, to their own children’s friends, etc.
Teach each person that his or her friendships with other Christians are necessary for the church to accomplish its mission. Show them example after example of where the world needs Christians to go out two-by-two or three-by-three with Jesus to help hurting hearts, befriend the friendless and help the poor. (See our article Jesus in the Cereal Aisle to spark you own ideas of “2 and 3 with Jesus ministries”. Click here to go to the article.)
CHURCH DIRECTION AND ORGANIZATION
Organize your church and its programs around the building blocks of Christian friendships, marriages, families and Natural Relationships Groups. Make sure that no member is without such powerful Christian support.
A Natural Relationships Group (NRG or "energy group") is made up of an individual’s (or a married couple’s or a family’s) closest Christian relationships with whom they have regular contact in the natural course of life. This group can be empowered to solve serious problems in the church and succeed in the most challenging of church ministries.
Jesus is part of each person’s energy group. "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (Matthew 18:20) Some situations are very difficult for an organizational church to handle adequately. However, if the church would recognize and equip Natural Relationships Groups (NRGs), much could be accomplished. Results would be fantastic, and the job of church leadership made easier and more rewarding. We show you how energy groups can be called into ministry for important spiritual tasks, using the example of a long-term unemployed husband and father. (Click here to see that example.) |
If you focus on biblical obedience in friendships, families and marriages, you will take your church for an exciting ride toward heaven rather than the slow pace of spiritual growth that we all accept as normal. Even though you will be encouraging 24/7 obedience in friendships, families, and marriages, you will be seen as the church absolutely critical for preparing Christians for their most important relationships and the service to God which those relationships can provide.
When you teach our 65 Togethers of Scripture you will be preparing your people for worship all week long as they reflect back to God that costly love He shows to us. That is, if you agree that worship is reflecting back to God his own character. Songs are wonderful; lives that reflect Jesus in us back to the Father is even more wonderful.
So, make sure your church program does not take away the opportunities your church’s friendships, families and marriages have to serve God and worship Him. Do not provide so many learning opportunities for your mature Christians. And, try to make church-wide service projects for those who do not have their own corners of the world to serve and evangelize.
If you are constantly in your sermons exhorting friendships, families, and marriages to implement the Togethers in their relationships and to reach out in both natural and unique ways in the community, then only invite those not so engaged to serve in church service projects. Say something like, if you do not have projects you are doing for the Lord in your friendships, family or marriage, please join our project to . . . in our community (or at our church facility).”
For example, if 3 men have decided to spend every other Saturday morning repairing the houses of poor people and the elderly, why would you want to invite them to spruce up the church grounds? There are likely many who are not yet committed to regular service to do that. And, remember, you want to invite friendships, families, and marriages who are not yet so active in service to come clean up the church premises. This may be the first step for them to get more active. If you allow the predicted 20% of the people to do 80% of the work, you are holding 80% of the people back and not preparing 80% of God’s people for works of service for the building up of the body of Christ (Eph 4:12).
You already know the families and the marriages in your church. Go on to identify the friendship groups that can be called upon to live more spiritually both in relationship and in service. First, plan with the other church leaders what you think the Lord would have your church do. In the area of Christian education, prioritize instruction in the basics, not in the curious because there is a lot to do for others inside and outside of the church. Plan even more for the things that need to be studied rather than the things that just be interesting, but not necessary, to study. For example, list all of the elderly and infirm and others who are needy on the church membership and attendance roles. Then, match ministry teams to take care of their needs. Put a husband and wife to work here, a family to work there, and a friendship group in another critical ministry to those needy in the church.
Train your church elders (leaders) to lead these friendship, family and marriage teams. When they struggle with internal relationships, help them. When they come up against barriers to their purposes, help them work together to overcome the confusion or adversity. It would be best for your leaders to take our free group and team leadership courses. They are online at this website. Click through to them at the top of this page.
Families, marriages and friendship groups, small groups, committees and teams must be led in such a way that they are empowered to build strong community and not allowed to be dependent upon the leader. Dependency comes from the usual manner of leadership, but Jesus sure did not allow it. Likewise, you can train your leaders to train other leaders to minimize dependency so that groups and teams can be set free to be much more effective.
Use our free online small group leadership training courses to learn how to focus leadership on groups rather than individuals. All of the church’s groups — families, marriages, friendships, Bible studies, elder and deacon boards, ministry teams, Sunday school classes, etc. — can be empowered as forms of the powerful church. But, the primary focus must be on those groups and the secondary focus of leading individuals directed at preparing them to exercise their faith in the various groups that make up the body of Christ. Then your groups, all those listed above, can become Empowered Teams. (This leadership model is probably a dramatic paradigm shift, but it is much closer to how Jesus led his disciples. It is actually easier than what you do now, but it takes a little “un-learning”.)
Organize your church so that people in your church have a better awareness of one another, take more interest in the success of others, help out more often with the struggles of life that leave broken hearts and ruined lives, and work together powerfully on the mission of the church.
To do this, stop treating fellowship as if it is community. Many churches I have visited call church suppers “community”. Relationships developed over a church supper usually reach only superficial usefulness and do not reach the depth that is required to defy sinfulness or grow spiritually. Anything less than taking responsibility for helping one another’s life with Jesus Christ is not community! So, don’t rely on church-wide fellowships to get the job done.
Often pastors hesitate to ask church members (other than those who readily volunteer) to take on responsibilities in the church. However, God wants to say to each of them, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” For every member of the church to thrill to that most-desired compliment it is necessary that church leadership guide every member into his or her own place of usefulness in the body.
There are gentle, yet convincing ways to do this. The easiest way might be to recruit friendship groups, families, and marriages for brief ministries. Those reticent to volunteer for ministry are best handled by those closest to them where their skills are known, encouragement easily given, and support available night and day.
Small groups are very important, especially for those less connected to other Christians on a regular and natural basis. Through teaching the Togethers, you will encourage everyone who is not homebound to be in a small group community that gets more serious about giving God what He wants. The purpose of these small groups should be to help one another live for Christ and Bible study should be aimed at that purpose. Purposes should be a result to strive for, not an activity. Obedience to the 65 Togethers should be a major aim of your small groups.
It may be difficult to convince those used to studying the Bible in small groups to give up the safety of such activity and get more involved in one another’s success as husband or wife, parent, employee, etc. – through interaction based on Bible study. What if a marriage is crumbling, but the Bible study topics do not address marriage? What if the group sees it job as learning about marriage but not holding the marriages of group members together? Even if there is time for asking about prayer requests and a couple says that they are in trouble, will the group realize that it is their responsibility to pray and then do much more?
We believe that small groups should eventually, if not initially, have the purpose of helping group members live more and more for God and his kingdom. The invitation to join should not be, “We would like you to come to our Bible study of the book of Ephesians.” Instead, it should be more like, “We would like you to join our group with the purpose of us all helping one another live more and more for God and his kingdom. We will do whatever is necessary for us all to be successful in our faith. We are also, when there is time, studying the book of Ephesians.”
There is a way to get homebound people into small group communities. Have each one adopted by a small group. The small group then includes that person as they might involve a homebound grandparent in their families. People in the small group call on the telephone and visit. They take care of a few home maintenance needs. They ask the homebound person to pray.
And the resistant person can also be included in a small group community. Here again, each group adopts a person or couple not in a group and invites them to group socials. The hope is that the person or couple will become comfortable and join that group or another if that group is full.
A way to naturally get new members into small group communities is to change the New Member’s Class to a New Member’s Small Group Community. You can do the same thing the class does, but add to the agenda getting them to give one another loving help and prayer support. At the end of the two or three-month period, ask them if they would like to continue on as one of the church’s small group communities. The hope is that, having been exposed to community instead of a class on the church, these new people will want to join a small group community.
One thing churches do to kill deeper growth in relationships is to end existing groups, mixing people up and tearing them apart from one another. What if it would take over a year for a person from a dangerous childhood to trust others and open up and ask for critical help? Churches are afraid of “cliques”, but when friendship groups are helped to be powerful forms of church and they get involved together in service, you will have “teams”, not cliques.
Church leaders worry that some people get left out if small groups are not “shuffled”. Keeping group relationships temporary and therefore superficial is not a biblical answer. Instead, church leadership should take charge and help every person in the church have at least two close friends in the church. This may sound like harder work, but the results for lonely people will be much better. They will develop lasting friends rather than having the feeling of not being left out. That illusion will collapse at the next group shuffle. In fact, losing friends that way is painful unless the only reason to know people in the church is to have someone to say “Hi” to in the aisle.
But getting lonely people together to create friendships is to create another ministry group. Church leaders help such budding friendships along by putting them to a task. And, eventually, there is less work for the pastor.
Have community with your elders and deacons and/or church staff. A good model for small churches is for the pastor and his wife to lead a small group for the top level of church leaders, be they elders, deacons or something else. [For discipling, which is showing rather than telling, you can use things that happen in this group as sermon illustrations.]
Make how people live worship, not just songs and praying. Show them from Amos, Chapter5 how God will not listen to songs and prayers if relationships among his people are not what he has commanded. If we define worship as reflecting back to God his own nature, attributes and character, then each one of the 65 Togethers is an act of worship. (If you read over the definitions of the Togethers at ChristiansTogether.org, you will see how each of them is an act of worship.)
Connect people with one another whenever you or church leadership can.
Whenever asked to do something or to give advice or help, the pastor, as well as other church leaders, should refer the person and his or her request on to someone else in the church. This enables community and builds interdependence.
Whenever someone approaches you for help, personal or spiritual, try to get them to go to their small group community for help. If you do anything a person’s small group can do, you sabotage community by preventing interaction and the other group members from growth. You and church leaders cannot ever give the amount and variety of help a small group can give. So, the person whom you help, rather than refer to his or her group, loses.
It is normal for a person to come to you about a marital problem. Often the greatest help you can give is to help that person know how to approach his or her small group for help or to join a short-term focus group on marriage. If you must do the counseling, or even if you have to refer to a professional counselor, there are still many, many helpful resources in the small group. Let me mention a few. There must be a hundred. (1) Other group members are probably making mistakes in their marriages. The person’s request for support will bring forth admissions of struggle. The person will not feel so alone. And more marriages will be helped. (2) The person will not feel so ashamed because others admit imperfections. (3) Another member might call during the week to encourage and offer advice. (4) Special hospitality will be extended to the hurting couple and give emotional relief. (5) Others will share ideas for possible solutions. (6) Other women will clarify the wife’s viewpoint; other men the husband’s thought pattern. (Be sure to see our recommended Togethers for marriages at our other web site: www.ChristiansTogether.org.)
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Prepare your leaders (elders, etc.) to prepare others for works of service (see Ephesians 4:12) and so build the body of Christ.
Since obeying Scriptures instructing kingdom relationships is so important, nothing is more critical than for a leader to be able to understand, teach and actually do the 65 Togethers of Scripture.
If a leader cannot live with other believers the way God commands, what would he or she be qualified to lead? It should be required of leaders to read all of what we have at ChristiansTogether.org as a start. (Acquiring Christian Community Leadership Certification would b Then it would be good for the leader to teach the Togethers. But, what is essential is that the leader can take Christian love to the depth of the Togethers.
Also, Jesus prepared his disciples by having them interact with one another in the intensity of their walk with Him through life. That is why we suggest that you as pastor lead church leaders in a group, with or without their spouses, with the group purpose being solely to help one another live more and more for Christ.
Taking responsibility for one another in Christian community forces people out of their comfort zone and into the playing zone. This will make your leaders strong with a committed faith for years of service in your church.
They should also themselves lead a group. (They can be in a group one week and lead a group the next week, alternating the two roles.) Have them go through our free online small group leadership course to prepare for this. (If you yourself want to be a member of a group, might there be a few pastors who could form one?)
You also build leadership by delegating freely. This relates to a cardinal rule: NEVER DO ANYTHING IF THERE IS ANOTHER PERSON OR GROUP/TEAM THAT CAN. To do what another can do is to communicate that you do not want to share ministry or, worse yet, that you do not consider him/her/them capable.
And, when there is no one to delegate to, whenever possible take someone along to train to do it the next time. In churches where church leadership does almost everything, crippling dependency sets in. Eventually, it is like pulling teeth to get people to take jobs in the church.
Encourage friendship groups to take on the leadership of ministries and programs whenever possible. This will reduce the time required as many ministry tasks will be done when the friends naturally get together. Use teams of relative strangers sparingly .
Delegating to Natural Relationship Groups to solve the big problems in church member’s lives will bring new leaders “out of nowhere”. (To see how this works, read our article How a Church Can Help a Long-Unemployed Person Get a Job by Using Natural Relationships Group Intervention. Click here to go there.)
Preparing Christians for lives of service for Jesus Christ is a task of church leadership that requires much more than teaching people they should serve. The power is not in teaching but in the many aspects of love required to help someone past things that hold them back, whether that be self-centeredness, busyness, low opinion of self, or any other strategy of Satan. Church leadership needs to avoid on one hand giving up on people and on the other being disgusted with them. If a person indwelt with the Holy Spirit is not serving, it is a worthy challenge for church leadership to do its job. A long term strategy might be called for. Looking through the list of our Togethers of Scripture will identify many aspects of love necessary to get a person going for lifelong service to Jesus Christ.
BENEFITS
For the pastor:
less and less work to do; jobs will expand in significance and shrink in workload
more time for family, friends and personal pursuits
higher salary because of church growth and less need for staff
For the church:
a much stronger church with a higher percentage of members involved in ministry
less divorces; less loss of members through family breakup
a more stable church; deeper relationships will keep people from church-hopping
church growth and more income for ministries
For church members:
less loneliness; deeper friendships
more resources for church members to be successful in their faith and in life
more personal encounters with Jesus (John 14:21)
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If you are concerned about the same things we are, we invite you to join our Advisory Team. This means that we will occasionally send you emails asking your thoughts about an issue we are thinking through. If you would like to be a part of our team, please email Dick Wulf at Dick@Wulf.com and let him know of your willingness to help.
__________________________________________________________________________________
If you are concerned about the same things we are, we invite you to join our Advisory Team. This means that we will occasionally send you emails asking your thoughts about an issue we are thinking through. If you would like to be a part of our team, please email Dick Wulf at Dick@Wulf.com and let him know of your willingness to help.
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Copyright 2012 Dick Wulf, Colorado, USA